Discussions
Do Fortune Cookie Predictions Expire?
Posted by gtally • 5/01/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: fortune cookies, future, predictions
A week? A month? Forever? Do the predictions go stale? Do you keep the little slips of paper? Will the fortune come true if you don't eat the cookie or throw the slips away? What's the best fortune you've ever gotten? And did it come true?
User Comments
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"Your love life will be happy and harmonious."
Ever come true for anyone? -
"A happy mind equals a read mind"
Did it come true? I don't know I was never smart enough to know what it meant.-
Maybe it means you'll be happiest if you date a psychic?
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It all depends on the interpretation of the readers -
fortune cookie predictions are like diamonds...they are forever.-
So does that mean you have to hold onto the slip of paper? A prediction seems a bit too precious to just throw into the garbage with the leftover lo mein.
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You throw away leftover Chinese food?! Horrors! What on earth do you have for breakfast the next day? -
Actually I don't. And Chinese food for breakfast is one of life's simple pleasures. Hey! I just "found beauty in ordinary things!" It's all coming true. Yipee!
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"Your wife is cheating on you."
That one worked out. -
How about: "Help! I'm being held hostage in a Chinese fortune cookie factory! Call the police!"
I'd like to get that one, sometime.
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LOL. My sister did this to me. She painstakingly removed the fortune, and using a toothpick, or something, put in her own, saying exactly that.
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Let's see. I have a fortune cookie in my hands right now.
"Many receive advice, only the wise profit by it"
Well, I did ask for help with my resume from a few people. I guess that counts as advice.-
Do you think you'll profit from it, then? And what was for dinner?
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I hope so, I could use a job.
Potstickers, Sesame beef, pork fried rice. Fairly mediocre Cantonese. I added a good squirt of Siracha hot sauce to the fried rice and that helped. -
I had excellent orange chicken, pan fried pot stickers and sesame chicken yesterday.
"You find the beauty in ordinary things" was the fortune.
I gotta try Siracha in fried rice. That sounds really, really good. -
I know this is evil to say, but I am pretty anti-chicken in Asian food. I don't know why. I hate chicken pad thai, but love pad thai with tofu. I hate sweet and sour chicken, but love sweet and sour beef. Chicken fried rice makes me gag, but shrimp fried rice is fantastic.
This anti-chicken bias does not carry over to non-Asian foods. KFC is awesome. I love buffalo wings. I adore roasted chicken. -
I could just as easily substitute pork for chicken, but I was in a chicken-y mood. I don't eat beef, because of mad cow disease. I stick to bison, instead. This is pretty easy to get in Colorado (but not in Chinese food). Although I once went to a part where they made buffalo pot stickers and they were extra super-awesome.
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I've always wanted to know how long a tarot card reading was good for.
Any idea?-
I dunno. I always figured tarot card predictions have a short lifespan of a few weeks, like a carton of milk or something. My theory is that fortune cookie fortunes only last until the next time you order Chinese food.
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well it depends. If you expect them to accurately predict what's going to happen in your life, they are stale even when the cookie is fresh out of the oven and just into the plastic bag. For amusement value, they are indeed like diamonds, forever. (I have eaten a zillion Chinese restaurant meals and never once saved the slip. And did you know, fortune cookies are actually Japanese in origin and are popular only in American style Chinese restaurants?)-
I know the stuff in the states is by and large not authentically Chinese food. That being said, I love Chinese-American cuisine, and consider it a fusion food. It's a great 120 year blend of different tastes and cultures, and extremely delicious.
I just heard another theory that the lifespan of the fortune only lasts as long as the leftovers. Any validity to this?
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My God, do you believe in that thing???-
My God, a funny, playful conversation is a funny, playful conversation! And what is "that thing" to which you're referring?
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In my experience, fortune cookies are stale the moment they're made. The same likely goes for the fortunes contained within.-
Do you think the fortunes are coiled up inside the cookies and lie dormant, like some kind of prognosticating explosives inside a fortune cookie hand grenade, and only activate the moment someone opens the cookie? What is the moment of fortune genesis? The printing on the paper at the bakery, the insertion into the cookie, the removal from the cookie, reading the slip of paper or eating some portion of the cookie? Personally, I think it's when you read the cookie slip that activates the fortune.
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That's such a good question! -
gtally - Very funny, I like it!!
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You have to eat the little slips of paper for the fortune to come true. Works every time.-
Maybe that's what I've been doing wrong all these years. Next time I'll skip the cookie and eat the fortune.
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Maybe you can control this in your browser's cookies options -
My friend's comment #1:
"It's an interesting question considering some of the fortunes, though. For example, would a fortune such as "Your Luck Is About To Change!" turn one's life into a nightmarish roller coaster of flux: everything divine for a few days then bam! right down the toilet (over and over again)?"
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It "expires" when you forget about it.
If it says that good things will happen and you keep remembering it than you will associate every good thing to it.
If it says that good things will happen but you simply forget about it, good things will keep happening but you won't associate with the fortune.-
So if the fortune is in the eye of the beholder, then is it really a fortune?
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Friend's Question #2: (supposing the fortunes are based upon the lifespan of left-overs)
"Boy, I don't know, but I can myself diving down a deep Talmudic rabbit hole of rules, exemptions, and traditions to try and tie the myriad possibilities together in some cohesive way. For example, how long do you consider leftovers to last? Do they still have to be edible or can you just leave them in the fridge indefinitely if you really love your fortune?" -
I'm surprised that thefiveelements hasn't posted this yet...
or were you satirizing?-
Agit8r -- Maybe a little bit of both.
Friends Question #3:
"And how does one define "Chinese food?" Is Italian cuisine cooked by a Chinese person in China "Chinese food?" If so then what about Thai food prepared by a second generation Chinese person in Tibet or Malaysia for that matter?
In other words, could you simply "order" food prepared by a friend who is 17% ethic Chinese (the percentage many states use to qualify for Native American status for financial aid) if you really hate your fortune?" -
"He who posts in the wrong place only muddies the waters of conversation."
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Can you imagine getting a fortune cookie that read:
"Your fortune has expired"
Geez, tell me something I DON'T know.-
I think if you got that fortune, you'd be in for a serious run of bad luck!
As for what makes Chinese food Chinese, I think for the sake of the fortune cookie, the definition would be as follows:
Any meal from a restaurant claiming to serve Chinese cuisine, culminating in a stale cookie usually wrapped in cellophane, and containing a slip of paper with a fortune, is the standard definition. Who prepares the food or how the food is prepared is less important than the claim that it came from a Chinese restaurant. -
@ekim
you had a 401k? -
Personally, I invested in a Roth MSG IRA.
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msg, huh?
that'll stick with ya!
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i wonder where fortune cookies are made?
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In China.
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Great question, which leads me to present Friend's comment #4:
"Fortune genesis! How could I have been so foolish as to not consider when the fortune actually begins! I like your idea, but if it's when you "read" the fortune does it count if you are blind and someone reads it to you? And if so, does it apply to the owner of the fortune or to the reader?" -
well everything else is, but they probably ship rice four from texas and corn syrup from Iowa through the panama canal... to china, where they are assembled, and shipped back to california. Ah, globalism
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The better question is what are they made from? I think it's brown sugar and ground up kitty litter.
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Agit8r, ekim:
"A fortune cookie is a crisp Asian American cookie usually made from flour, sugar, vanilla, and oil with a "fortune" wrapped inside. A "fortune" is a piece of paper with words of faux wisdom or a vague prophecy. In the United States and Canada (although also available in other parts of the Western world), it is usually served with Chinese food in Chinese restaurants as a dessert. The message inside may also include a list of lucky numbers (used by some as lottery numbers) and a Chinese phrase with translation. The exact provenance of fortune cookies is unclear, but various immigrant groups in California claim to have popularized then in the early 20th century, basing their recipe on a traditional Japanese cracker. The cookies are little-known in mainland China or Taiwan."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune_cookie -
@ekim
could be from one of their cat-farms... used of course?
thanx for ruining our fun, gtally
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I say that in the case of the blind customer and the fortune cookie, it is the person who pays the bill who reaps the fortune. There is no justice to this rule, but I did not make this up whole cloth.
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meow
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Most fortune cookies are made in Franklin Park, IL. There is a fortune cookie factory there next to the Mars/MM factory and the factory where they make Necco wafers.
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Here I thought they just used the stray cats for their cat on a stick I mean beef on a stick but if they got the litter they must raise the poor cats -
Agit8r -- I'm merely presenting the ageless wisdom of the cookies:
"He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at."
And the eternal truths derived from Wikipedia, of course. -
Hey, hey, hey!
Enough with the cat abuse. I am both Asian and cat lover, and no I don't mean for dinner.
*smacks chicky401* -
Sorry not trying to offend, I love my kitties but we have chinese places that were shut down because of it
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I meant for fur. still wrong, i know... *puts nose in corner*
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Guess I will meet you in the corner. Move over and make room
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Agit and chicky. Despair not:
"It doesn't matter. Who is without a flaw?" -
'nother cookie fortune?
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Agit:
"He who has mad Google skillz can find almost anything." -
Hmmm...ok Hopefully we get a winning fortune this time
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your numbers are 16, 8, 45, 19, 77, 12
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chicky:
"A thrilling time is in your immediate future. "
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I'll raise the fortune cookie discourse even higher.
Does he-who-treats by paying for the meal then get all of the fortunes, and if so, do all the fortunes necessarily apply or can he (or she) pick and choose and will?-
I say the "winner take all" approach of the bill payer only works if someone is unable to read the fortune themselves. Otherwise, the slip of paper is assigned to the individual who chose it. I have a philosophical question for everyone: What if one person cannot read a fortune, such as a child who had not yet learned to read, but everyone goes Dutch? Then what?
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Yes they do expire. Check the packaging there should be a "use by" or "best before" date on them somewhere.
Consume after this date and the prediction reverts to default which is "you spend long time in toilet".-
I say the cookie is ethereal. Only the diahorrea and the fortune are eternal.
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So that's why some restaurants have that effect...
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"He who eats until it hurts/May be destined to have the squirts."
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nice
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"He who gorges until he's fat/Won't feel relief until he's sh#t."
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you mean sh@t?
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Yes, that.
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Anon old Chinese proverb "You thought it only was a fart but then feel a runny turd depart."
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What do people think, is the paper the fortunes are printed on contain a generic amorphous fortune, or mana, that is then shaped into individual fortunes? What about the ink?
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I say the mana is channeled by factory machines into the paper and ink, with a squirt of MSG for good measure.
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My fortune cookie now comes with emoticons
" You are generous to the extreme and always think of the other fellow"-
that's what she said
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Aigt8r -- Are you filling in for the pink donkeh tonight?
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yes, how did you know?
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Your lavender snout was a dead giveaway.
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I haven't had an actual "fortune" in a long time. Mine have always told me about my personality and given me my lucky lotto numbers. Not as fun as fortunes...-
Yeah. Mine are usually in the self-help vein, as well.
"Your happiness is intertwined with your outlook on life."
and
"He who wrote that last fortune is a moron with a gift for the obvious."
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The Monkey and the Coconut... oops wrong thread
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look who is back! have fun there big guy? -
Wow. You were gone for like a whole 30 seconds. A new record!
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dinner time... and no that not an entendre
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No entendres or gnomes. We both must have swine flu.
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Gnomesense!
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Gnomes in a Chinese Restaurant:
There. That brings things full circle, doesn't it?
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Man, if they don't I have thousands of blessings coming. The real question can something that is not real have an expiration date?-
The wrapper is real, the cookie is real. So are the words, ink and paper of the fortune. At what point does it become unreal? Is the fortune like Tinkerbell from Peter Pan, and is dependent on you believing in it? Or is it like a curse in a Greek tragedy, and will come true regardless of whether you believe in it or not?
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I make Chinese food for my family quite often. I just started getting into making fortune cookies (they never turn out quite as well as the restaurant ones, but fun nonetheless). My son has the stinkiest feet ever and I put "wash your feet very good every single night and a Wii may be in your future" in his cookie.
Needless to say, I haven't smelled feet in a week. -
"She who smells no feet/Very well might find life complete."
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*Your thread will be unexpectedly revived*
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It lives in the past, and yet is part of the future...
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Only ones that say...
'that wasn't chicken'
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